Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Flying to South Africa on Cathay

I recently flew to South Africa with my partner who was not allowed to board the plane as there was not a complete free page in her passport. I flew on and she followed the next day (good old British embassy providing a new passport within six hours and on a weekend).
Firstly was Cathay right in not allowing her to board citing the possibility that they would be fined and she would be sent back to HK on the same plane?
Secondly has anyone else head of or had a similar experience ?
Interestingly there was one guy sitting in my cabin who had a similar issue (not picked up by check in) and he was led away at immigration in Joberg. I wonder if immigration in SA would have let her through with the half page free , did this other passenger get through? I'm sure I would have been able to blag it to the South Africans.
Note the ticket was purchased direct from Cathay with no warning on this one page rule.

FWIW, I've been to Nigeria, the UK and Germany in the past few months, and I haven't had a free page in my passportduring that time. As a matter of fact, the last trip to the UK, I didn't have a free space in the passport. No problem, they just stamped right over another stamp... I can't imagine South Africa would be terribly different.

Never heard of a problem if you don't have a free page, however, this is the first time I have heard of anyone stamping over another stamp.

Some countries require as many as 4 free pages in your passport, and you either pay a "fine" of several thousand dollars or get refused admission. Other countries don't care (Germany is perhaps the most liberal in that way). Many countries also require up to 6 months remaining validity in the passport. These regulations vary a lot by each country. The airline does face a rather large fine (for Mexico it is USD 10,000 per violation) as well as having to provide return transportation. My limited experience with South African immigration is that they are sticklers (one of their stamps from a prior visit was blurred in my passport as that was how they had stamped it, and despite being irrelevant to my current visit they questioned me for a long time about it). CX probably did your friend a favour by catching this before the flight.

Note that South African entry visas are stickers that require a completely free page on a passport. If there isn't any place for the immigration to stick the visa, then they can just refuse you entry and put you on a plane back to where you came from.

Obviously CX has had previous experiences from passengers who had been probably refused entry and sent back.. and now they are diligent in checking to make sure that passports entering SA have a free page left.

Yes I would say CX probably did your friend a favour in this instance.

My father a couple of years ago got refused entry into South Africa for just this reason. He was just connecting through JNB so it was not a problem, but they do seem to take this stuff seriously.

CX is correct. SA requires at least one free page (unless you are a South African citizen or hold permanent residence in which case they will happily put one stamp above the other). I addition your passport will have to be valid for a minimum period of six month when entering the country.

Yep, SA requires one free page in your passport and is forcing the airlines to police it.

The funny thing is when I arrived in South Africa I asked if they could put the (less than half page sized) sticker at the bottom of the page in my passport that was already half full , which they did and it even overlapped a previous stamp. So much for phsically needing a full virgin page for the stamp as this is clearly rubbish. My partners passport was full apart from one page that had a tiny Stamp in the top half , there was a whole 4/5ths page free. We are dealing with Africa though so next time I travel to third worldesque countries I'll be more careful as they can be very bureaucratic.

We are dealing with Africa though so next time I travel to third worldesque countries I'll be more careful as they can be very bureaucratic.

Come on. South Africa is definitely not third world.

We are dealing with Africa though so next time I travel to third worldesque countries I'll be more careful as they can be very bureaucratic.Bureaucracy is not the preserve of immigration only in third world countries. And flippant bigotry should be beneath a world traveller.

Bureaucracy is not the preserve of immigration only in third world countries. And flippant bigotry should be beneath a world traveller.


I never fly world traveller , only business and when my lucks in First.

We are dealing with Africa though so next time I travel to third worldesque countries I'll be more careful as they can be very bureaucratic.

Oh boy. :td:

To the OP, did CX change the flights of your partner for free or did you need to pay the change fee?

To the OP, did CX change the flights of your partner for free or did you need to pay the change fee?


The flight was changed for no charge and they kept her in the upgrade seat that had been paid for with miles.

I have been reliably told by a friend who works (or worked) in Australian Dept of Immigration (or whatever they are called this week) that if there are stamps over stamps in the passport, that is a "trigger" for very close attention to what is exactly in the passport - such as forged pages or stamps with information that may not be desirable to the passport holder.

I have been reliably told by a friend who works (or worked) in Australian Dept of Immigration (or whatever they are called this week) that if there are stamps over stamps in the passport, that is a "trigger" for very close attention to what is exactly in the passport - such as forged pages or stamps with information that may not be desirable to the passport holder.